Is this too lazy? (Latin)

[lgliser]

Last year we did Prima Latina. This year we started with Latina Christiana but quickly decided that it was moving too fast. We switched to Getting Started with Latin and we love it! We've been doing one lesson every day and that's going well. We're at lesson 39 out of 134 so we won't finish this year and that's fine with me. We'll continue it next year.

 

What sounds nice to me is doing it 2-3 times a week next year and making it last the whole year. But does that sound lazy? Should we push ourselves a little harder? 

 

 

[2_girls_mommy]

You're talking about very young kids. Doing any Latin is great. That would be fine. I would try to keep regular with it. But 2-3 times a week is regular. 

[UCF612]

We do GSWL roughly two days a week. It probably isn't ideal for perfect Latin learning but it works well for us and the kids love it.

[lgliser]

I think I'll do it. Though I am now wondering if there's anything I could do in addition to about 2 days a week of GSWL. Any teeny tiny Latin program out there? Or games?

[Ms.Ivy]

I think I'll do it. Though I am now wondering if there's anything I could do in addition to about 2 days a week of GSWL. Any teeny tiny Latin program out there? Or games?

Headventure Land by CAP has lots of Latin games and mini movies. My kids play on there once a week or so.

[EndOfOrdinary]

Song School Latin would be fun the other days and really help them remember the basics. That is all you really need to do when they are younger. If you want to get hardcore, you can teach them the first declension endings and such one year, but there is no need for that. Bullet proof grammar has helped Ds more than anything.

[SarahW]

I'm confused.

 

We're talking about the 4th grader, not the K'ers, right?

 

 

For a 4th grader I would just keep doing GSWL every day. When you're done with it you can just move on to the next thing.

Edited February 24, 2017 by SarahW

[Miss Tick]

There are two things I would suggest for GSWL. One is to add regular days of English to Latin translation. I would flip back a few lessons and use the solutions section for questions. This was much more challenging and really helped it stick.

 

I also would have started with flashcards for vocabulary. We use Anki for that. The spaced review is great.

 

For a little thing to add in, you could look at Minimus. It is colorful and inexpensive. It wasn't a hit for us, but for some kids it is just the thing.

[SanDiegoMom]

We have one game suggestion.  Just one. We started doing a pictionary round in the morning with my fifth grade twins -- I show one twin the latin flashcard, they draw the picture (so they have to be able to remember the translation) and the other twin guesses it and has to use the latin word.  They've been enjoying this and we only do it for 10 minutes as a way to start the day. 

 

We do Latin every day but we literally just started second semester fifth grade. 

[beka87]

Not to hijack a thread, but I tried to find Minimus samples and couldn't, then looked at the whole program and was rather shocked at how expensive it is.  Am I missing something?

[HomeAgain]

Not to hijack a thread, but I tried to find Minimus samples and couldn't, then looked at the whole program and was rather shocked at how expensive it is.  Am I missing something?

 

Our library has a copy of Minimus & Minimus Secundus.  They have just the student's text which seems perfectly fine to use without a teacher's book (and starts at $4 used on Amazon). 

 

Rainbow Resource shows a brief sample page: https://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?id=001165&subject=Foreign+Language/15&category=Minimus+Latin+Program/7087

[Tranquility7]

Lingua Latina!!!

Ok, I know that doesn't sound "teeny tiny". But just do a teeny tiny part of it. Aim to read just the first two or three chapters over the course of the year. Read and reread and reread, and you will find yourself reading in Latin!

 

I'm a huge fan of GSWL, but I am not sure it is meant to be stretched out that long. The problem isn't that drawing out GSWL is lazy. The problem is, in my opinion (and experience), GSWL over that length of time could definitely either get boring (b/c too slow) or frustrating (b/c you forget earlier vocab and concepts b/c of going so slowly). Or worst case, both boring AND frustrating. So, if you do stretch it out, make sure that you are 1) reviewing vocab regularly, 2) reviewing the charts it teaches you, and 3) reading a tiny bit of Lingua Latina every now and then (the first couple of chapters will be fun and easy during/after GSWL). Technically you don't even need to buy anything but the Lingua Latina Familia Romana book, but if you want a glossary of the vocab and a bit of grammar explanation, I highly recommend A College Companion.

 

[lgliser]

 

 

There are two things I would suggest for GSWL. One is to add regular days of English to Latin translation. I would flip back a few lessons and use the solutions section for questions. This was much more challenging and really helped it stick.

 

I also would have started with flashcards for vocabulary. We use Anki for that. The spaced review is great.

English to Latin - I love this idea!   

We do use Quizlet for vocab :)

 

 

We're talking about the 4th grader, not the K'ers, right?

 

 

For a 4th grader I would just keep doing GSWL every day. When you're done with it you can just move on to the next thing.

 

Right, and I'm talking about next year so 5th grade really! So ya, I agree that yes they are still on the young side but not like kindergarten or first grade. We can challenge ourselves some! The only thing I don't like about doing GSWL every day, getting done mid-5th grade, and starting something new mid-5th grade, is that then we're always going to be starting/stopping something mid-year. We got ourselves into that cycle with All About Spelling. So when we started in the middle of the 4th level book this year, we had forgotten some of the rules and things we had learned at the end of last year. AAS builds in some review at the beginning of each level so it's not like it was too hard to go back and just review a little, but it's just not my preferred way to do things! But, as I am typing this out I'm thinking I should stop being so anal!

 

 

 

We have one game suggestion.  Just one. We started doing a pictionary round in the morning with my fifth grade twins -- I show one twin the latin flashcard, they draw the picture (so they have to be able to remember the translation) and the other twin guesses it and has to use the latin word.  They've been enjoying this and we only do it for 10 minutes as a way to start the day.

That's fun! So are you doing latin words or phrases? 

 

 

Lingua Latina!!!

Ok, I know that doesn't sound "teeny tiny". But just do a teeny tiny part of it. Aim to read just the first two or three chapters over the course of the year. Read and reread and reread, and you will find yourself reading in Latin!

 

I'm a huge fan of GSWL, but I am not sure it is meant to be stretched out that long. The problem isn't that drawing out GSWL is lazy. The problem is, in my opinion (and experience), GSWL over that length of time could definitely either get boring (b/c too slow) or frustrating (b/c you forget earlier vocab and concepts b/c of going so slowly). Or worst case, both boring AND frustrating. So, if you do stretch it out, make sure that you are 1) reviewing vocab regularly, 2) reviewing the charts it teaches you, and 3) reading a tiny bit of Lingua Latina every now and then (the first couple of chapters will be fun and easy during/after GSWL).

I just looked that up - it's all in Latin? That could be cool! 

I see what you mean about going too slow and forgetting things. But I can also see how we could very easily review charts and vocab daily. We did Prima Latina last year and we still sometimes review the vocab and prayers from that too, so we could be more intentional about doing that more often. 

 

We do have Song School Latin on hand too - borrowed it from a friend once but we've never used it. It might be a little young I think but fun anyway!

 

I get torn about really wanting to be hardcore about things (which is more my nature) and just chilling out sometimes and taking things slowly. I feel like Latin is one thing where it wouldn't hurt anything to just chill about. It's Latin! I mean, obviously I think it is a good thing to teach (otherwise I wouldn't bother at all...) but is it going to be really detrimental if we aren't as "up to speed" as some 5th graders are? Some don't even start until 5th grade - or later! Not arguing here, just thinking out loud. On the other hand, the younger they are, sometimes the easier things like this are, so maybe more of a push at this age is a good thing! 

 

I think I'm leaning toward stretching GSWL to 2/3 days a week, and definitely using the ideas for review that you guys have given me. 

[RootAnn]

Originally, I was going to say to get off your duff & do it everyday, but I pondered longer & reconsidered. I think you are fine doing GSWL 2-3 days per week, especially if you build in daily (5 min) review or a 15 minute fun activity or other resource at least one other day of the week (if only doing 2 days of GSWL). Three days per week would be my minimum.

 

We're doing Getting Started with French 4 days per week and won't get done in one school year. I know that there will be some weeks (not every week, but at least one out of four) that we don't get to one of the days, so while we shoot for four days per week, we are reliably getting to it three days per week.

 

We build in more review (chanting conjugations), doing English-to-French every once and awhile, and working on our pronunciations. Next year, we'll continue with GSWF and start a French 1 textbook to mix in.

[lgliser]

 

 

Originally, I was going to say to get off your duff & do it everyday, but I pondered longer & reconsidered. I think you are fine doing GSWL 2-3 days per week, especially if you build in daily (5 min) review or a 15 minute fun activity or other resource at least one other day of the week (if only doing 2 days of GSWL). Three days per week would be my minimum.

LOL I know - it's really not hard to do once a day. I was just thinking about other subjects that we don't do every day, like grammar. It's just 3 days a week, and that's really nice. (Especially since we have one day taken up by a co-op). So I figured that maybe we could do this with Latin as well. And then as an added bonus, we wouldn't be starting/stopping a curriculum in the middle of a school year, which is something I really dislike. (Even if it is a somewhat silly reason). 

But ya, with the daily 5-15 minutes of review, we'll still be getting a good amount of Latin in!

[beka87]

Our library has a copy of Minimus & Minimus Secundus.  They have just the student's text which seems perfectly fine to use without a teacher's book (and starts at $4 used on Amazon). 

 

Rainbow Resource shows a brief sample page: https://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?id=001165&subject=Foreign+Language/15&category=Minimus+Latin+Program/7087

 

 

Thank you! :)